Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Imperium’ wins London Film Festival’s top prize as 2026 winners are named

Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium won Best Film at the 2026 BFI London Film Festival in London on Sunday, October 18, as the festival announced its awards on its final day. The result put a film built around footage of the Soviet Union in the early 1970s at the top of the Official Competition.

The jury, led by filmmaker Sam Pollard, called Imperium ‘richly evocative and emotionally engaging’ and praised its perspective on life before the Soviet Union broke apart. Variety reported that the footage was shot by Italian cameramen; Deadline described the film’s source material as a rich archive.

Which films won the other London Film Festival awards?

The film follows Sakol, who hears a prophecy that his elderly mother may die soon and sets out to visit nine temples in one day. It had previously debuted at Cannes, according to Deadline. Bertil Nilsson’s MASC received a special mention in the first feature competition, Variety reported.

Asmahan Bkerat’s Concrete Land won the Grierson Award in the documentary competition. The Hollywood Reporter described the film as the story of a Palestinian Bedouin family displaced in Jordan. The award adds a documentary winner to a list led by films exploring history, family and displacement.

Rahul Roye’s Aman won the Short Film Award, completing the four principal competition winners identified in the reports. The prizes were unveiled before the festival’s evening finale, the U.K. premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Why did the jury choose ‘Imperium’?

In its explanation of the Best Film decision, the Official Competition jury said Imperium drew on a wide-ranging archive to show a social and cultural landscape rarely seen on screen. It said the film offered a ‘visually arresting perspective’ on the Soviet Union before its breakup. That appraisal explains why the archival approach, rather than a conventional account of a single event, stood out to the jury.